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A while ago, the friendly folk from Clemengold sent me a huge box filled with their delicious fruit. I was over-the-moon, not only because I was excited to play with the flavours and come up with some interesting recipes, but also because throughout Winter, my family and I rely heavily on Clemengolds for snacks, lunchbox fillers and sometimes even lunch. Their flavour is so wonderfully distinct and I have never tasted a naartjie/clementine sweeter than a Clemengold. They almost taste like sweets, which is why my children adore them. Easy to peel, sweet and delicious? What more could you ask from a humble little fruit?

When I got my box of Clemengolds, we had just started experiencing the first of Spring so I wanted to use the fruit in a way that you wouldn’t expect, especially from a Winter fruit. Thus, I decided to make a refreshing sorbet. Well that was the plan anyway. I made the syrup, juiced and zested the fruit and got the mixture into the freezer. I went back every 30 minutes to beat it with a wire whisk to break up the crystals, but after about 2 hours I completely forgot about my sorbet and only remembered the next morning by which time it was one giant ice block. I knew the only option would be to scrape the surface with a fork and turn what was meant to be a smooth sorbet into an icy granita. That also failed slightly as I was tired 1/4 of the way through (scraping is hard work, ok?). So I broke the big ice block into chunks and blitzed it in my food processor until it was relatively smooth. I dumped the mixture back into the original dish and allowed it to firm up again. When I took it out of the freezer it was the perfect combination between sorbet and granita. Slightly smooth with slight texture from the crystals.

It was absolutely delicious and so incredibly refreshing. If you have an ice-cream maker, obviously it will be much easier to do this but if you don’t, I suggest you set a timer for every 30 minutes to make sure the ice crystals get broken up to ensure a smooth, beautiful sorbet. (You can also use oranges, clementines or naartjies for this sorbet.)

Being a general food freak has proven to be quite helpful in this career I've found myself in. Author of two cookbooks, photographer, food stylist. Mom to twins. Ex make-up and hair artist obsessed with beautiful clothes and spaces. I love a good G&T and I've been known to spend too much money on shoes.

Hi, I’m Sonia, an Italian food blogger, sorry for my bad English, I want tell you that I have included the link of this recipe in the section on my blog dedicated to “10 ways to make” (“10 Modi di Fare”) granita recipes.
The post is ‘Granita ai mirtilli’ I hope not to bother you.
Have a nice day.